Gerards movements were too fast for me to keep up with. In an instant the Bandit leader had slipped from my vision. His black sword slid noiselessly through air from behind me. With no time to react, all i could do was attempt to outrun the blade, but it was no use. I shifted as far away as possible as the cutting edge reached the quarter mark of my neck, cutting through with ease. I'd move just far enough away from him in that instant to prevent my head from flying off completely, but this wound to my neck would surely be lethal.
In this blink of an eye, this fraction of a second, He had gotten behind me, dealt a lethal blow as I'd pulled away, and separated once more by ten or so meters. Our positions in the village centre had switched. The men he'd arrived with were now at my back. I collapsed to my knees clasping at my neck. What appeared to be my blood, my sap? poured forth through my clenched fingers.
I was scared. A searing pain, the first I'd felt as a plant, flashed from the wound through my mind, burning away any thought of battle. I had just been reborn and here i am now about to be killed again. What was the point in it all? The villagers' faces turned gaunt with fear when they caught up on the situation and the bandits crew let out a cheer.
A darkness began to creep in from the edges of my vision. Gerard was looking on with a grin. He sheathed his sword again and took a step towards me.
[Initiating healing herbs] The System poke to me.
The encroaching darkness on my vision stopped and began to retreat. Light began to return to the scene. Healing herbs? Can i heal this? The man took another step towards me. lifting a hand to swipe strand of his red hair from his eyes.
"That was a close one. Are you sure you're not going to run?"
{I Can't run, even if i can escape, he'll kill everyone here then do the same again and again.}
"Is that your problem?"
Another step. He was now only a few meters away. The healing herbs had done enough to reduce the pain and were currently stitching my neck together once more, hidden by the bloodied hand i held to my neck now to hide my healing.
{It's not, but I'm going to make it mine.}
"If you die, we won't be bringing you back. You were a mathematical anomaly that truly defied probability. It would be a shame to lose you here."
Another Step. He now stood only a meter away. the five o'clock shadow, his yellowing teeth fixed in a crooked grin, his scared cheeks and forehead. All of it was clearly visible in the firelight, but i made no effort to look up. I fixed my eyes at his feet, feigning defeat.
{Now that's really not my problem!}
"Pit fall"
My spears launched without any conscious effort from the ground, this time it was ten or so in a circle all around me of two meters. An upgrade on behalf of The System after learning it as a skill. Gerard must have felt the movement under his feet. He darted backwards in an instant. But i had planned for that too. My consciously controlled, second set of roots erupted from the ground where he was landing. Rotating mid-air, he managed to avoid both spikes from puncturing his feet, but I'd achieved my goal. One had managed to graze his leg, cutting him with a cyanide laced edge.
"Ohh, you caught me by surprise there, buddy. Not bad at all."
"Plenty more poison where that came from."
"Poison huh? You really do fight just like us."
"I'll take that as a compliment for now."
"Hmmm, this one feels like cyanide."
I had expected him to begin to panic by now. To act rashly and make a mistake. I was mistaken. He had no concern for the poison at all. In fact, he seemed to be able to identify it as it ran through his veins.
"The thing is, I've got quite a tolerance to poisons. Part of the trade you see."
I returned to my feet and released my hand from my neck while withdrawing my vines. Gerard was clenching and unclenching his hands and hopping lightly on his freshly cut leg.
"Not bad, this one will slow me down a bit, after-all."
"It would appear your cyanide isn't going to be enough to kill him. That poison resistance is real."
{Great, so he wasn't bluffing.}
"I think I might make a little tactical retreat here. There is a few too many unknow variables to you."
"You think I'm going to let you get away?"
"Do you think you can stop me?"
"I'm not letting you terrorise these people any longer."
"I'm done in this region. You've killed or captured most of my crew and apparently discovered my hideout. And now that i look at you, it seems you can heal what would have been a mortal wound on anyone else. I'm very confident i can kill you, but I'm not certain I'll come out of a fight without serious injury."
It was true. I wasn't confident that i could hold out in a fight against him even if my cyanide had slowed him down. I'd yet to undertake even a full day of training in this body before finding myself in a fight with a lethal opponent. Letting him go was not an option, however. I could tell he was dangerous and merciless from sensing his aura. Even if he did retreat today, i was certain I'd awake with his sword at my neck someday.
I launched myself forward in attack this time. In an instant Gerard had drawn his sword once more and swung it in an ark in front of him. I knew i wouldn't catch him completely off guard but didn't expect that even in his poisoned state he could anticipate my surprise movements so well. I managed to pull up short of the tip of his blade as it whirled across in front of my eyes. I brought my arm around in diagonal swing and transformed it into a sword as quickly as i was able. It was only half done as i approached impact, but it didn't matter anyway. Gerard had already come back around for a counter swing and lopped my right arm clean off then using his bodies momentum landed a spinning back kick square in my abdomen.
The impact sent me flying from the village and into the tree line a few rows back before i impacted with a tall pine that snapped from the base as i collided. I felt the ached throughout my entire body. The missing arm wasn't an issue. I knew i could grow that again. The blunt force damage to the rest of my body however seemed to have a real impact. I guess my head and my torso are still vital spots.
Gerard hadn't pursued me into the darkness of the forest. It would seem he was fighting a more defensive battle now, anticipating more tricks or traps if he goes on the offensive. I knew I would only have one more shot at killing this man. One more attempt at a surprise attack from the dark before his sword found its mark. My body wouldn't hold out much longer and that last impact had left a lingering damage that wasn't healable with stitches. But I didn't feel hopeless. I had one last idea to go with my final surge.
Planting my hands on the downed pine that had collapsed, i slowly began meld with it and to condense it as much as i was currently able in such short time. In a few seconds i had managed to shrink it down into what resembled a three meter long, ten-centimetre-wide fence post. It maintained all its original mass but looked far lighter than it was. One more second.
"That'll do."
The pole was down to two meters long now and had begun to resemble a wooden staff not dissimilar to Sun Wukong's from the old tales. I wonder why I can remember that out of everything forgotten.
I had compressed the molecules as densely as i could with my body control skill. The staff was as hard and dense as stone and as heavy as a tree. I would only get one shot at this. Gerard would likely try to parry and counter. I had to rely on our brief exchange so far for an indication on his habits, my soldiers' instincts told me this was my best chance.
Leaving the new staff attached to where my right arm once was i leapt back into the clearing. The weight was almost unwieldy and thanked the incredible strength of my new body for making it possible at all.
Gerard was already in stance as i swung my newly created staff as hard and fast as i could towards him. It must have seemed like a desperate last stand of a dying man. Gerard grinned and postured to parry the relatively slow-moving staff (compared to our previous exchanges) as its path arced horizontally towards him.
THWAK.
The flat of his sword met the full weight of the shrunken tree which then carried on into his body. In the briefest of moments, i managed to catch the site of his forearm arm break under the impact before the rest of him was sent spiralling and crashing out of the village. I was unable to pull up the momentum of my swing and ended up spinning a few times in place before detaching the staff and stabilising myself. After regaining my composure i looked out through my detection and seen Gerard heading at speed back down the mountain.
"Shit, he's getting away i yelled."
The three unbound bandits who remained looked on in horror as they realised, they had just been abandoned with the person who had sent their boss flying. I looked across at them with as much menacing facial expression as i could muster through the pain still emanating through my body. All three of them cast their weapons aside and offered themselves up to the villagers to be bound along with their comrades.
I had followed on after the red-haired bandit down the slope. He was moving further and further toward the perimeter of my zone of detection with each second and as we reached the road he broke right and continued into the night. I had a feeling that with those injuries he'd not make the mistake of returning to the base i knew the location of. Letting out a sigh of disappointment i turned and sprinted back up the slope once more.
When i arrived back in the village only five minutes had passed since the raid had begun yet, We had eliminated the group of bandits but for one, their leader.
"Edgar, what are the casualties?"
"It looks like Greg was killed. Maise is still in her house refusing to let him go."
I recalled the site of the woman holding her husband and realised that must be who he was referring to.
{How long exactly has it been since the raid started?}
"Four minutes and fifty-three seconds. Why do you ask?"
"I'm going to try something. Edgar, i need you to get Maise out of the house. I'm taking this one."
I grabbed the Bald-headed bandit i had confronted earlier in Maise's house. He was still unconscious, and his head lolled disconcertingly as i threw him over my shoulder. Edgar looked confused but complied with my request and followed me into the house.
"I'm going to try something"